Try to put borders around online distribution and you’ll end up with a racist, outdated mess that is hard to defend to any customer, consumer association, lawyer or judge.
This is not the first time I have read something like this, and I am sure that many of you have had to hold your nose and read those terms and conditions.
Some hoteliers have not realised that you do not need a passport to browse the internet and book freely on websites from other countries.
Some of you have been following me for a while. For those who do not know me, a little background: I am a revenue manager who grew up in the holiday market, where the distribution mix has no limits. I support distributing rates differently as long as they are opaque or you understand the risk. For more on that, see The taboo around tour operator guarantees: five factors to consider.
“On the internet, you do not need a passport, and you can book freely on websites from other countries.”
At the end of the day, a revenue manager is looking for profitability, not a “fashionable” way of distributing rates. The most profitable approach is the right one, regardless of the distribution channel.
I am not even trying to defend rate parity across the various online distribution sites. My point is simple: if a Spanish customer books through a “foreign online agency” (it sounds odd, doesn’t it? 🙄), or chooses a flight-and-hotel package because it is cheaper than booking the hotel alone on Booking.com or your own website, you should enter the reservation into your system without hesitation. The risk was there all along. You may receive only three or four such bookings in a year; let it go and avoid getting drawn into an argument between hotel, wholesaler, website and customer that will lead nowhere.
Let me put a question to those who favour “online segregation”: if the guest’s name were Polish, would you do the same? If your answer is no, you have answered your own question.
I understand using a tour operator’s sales force. I even understand—though I do not agree with it—using different rates for different countries because the average consumer is unlikely to search online for prices on sites such as “Omegarooms” or “Monarquicarooms”. But if a booking comes in, you have to honour it and carry on with your risk strategy.
Hotels, wholesalers and “foreign online agencies” (it still sounds odd 😆) continue to do business this way. But a look at the past shows that online rates are moving towards a single price. And a heads-up: by the end of 2018, under Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004, Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC, clauses requiring unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market were due to become illegal.
This article offers an excellent summary of the upcoming change to the rules.
Will you join the progress, or stay anchored in the past?